It has been a rather warm week in the Geriatric Ward and the forecast does not suggest much relief in the foreseeable future. What has that meant for me? Plenty of time to read as long as I find the quiet spots in the house before the patients take them over and blare every television in the place!
What I Finished This Week
Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. It was 947 pages. It took almost a month of my life to get through this first #BigBookSummer read and I thoroughly loved it. This is the second volume in Gabaldon’s Outlander series. While I’m not normally one who enjoys time travel in my fiction, Gabaldon’s characters are so beautifully crafted that I can accept the impossible and focus on the amazing story. Dragonfly has a bit of something for everyone. There’s romance, magic, political intrigue, and thrills around every corner. I was a little concerned that I would not remember much of the storyline coming back to the series after a year away from Claire and Jaime’s story, but I was sucked back in quickly. Gabaldon gives enough backstory to events to trigger the reader’s memory when necessary without feeling as though you are re-reading past events. Because of their size, I am planning to read one of these books each summer. Was it a perfect read? No….there were times that I found things getting sluggish and I simply wanted to move on. But overall, this was another outstanding read. There are trigger warnings to consider for domestic violence, miscarriages, and war. 4 stars.
What I’m Currently Reading
The Summer We Ran by Audrey Ingram (p. 106 of 321). After Dragonfly in Amber, I needed something different and not so massive. I decided to take a detour from my plan and dive into the recently published book I had received from The Book of the Month Club. The Summer We Ran follows Tess, the Democratic candidate for the governor of Virginia. She was raised by a single mother who worked for powerful people in Virginian society in the 1990s. Tess’ opponent in the gubernatorial race is Grant, a man who has lived a privileged life in DC society. Tess and Grant share a secret past that they are keeping from their families, their constituents, and their staff. When the truth ultimately comes out, it promises to be destructive and life-changing. Written in an alternating timeline, Ingram is revealing events in the summer of 1996 and then showing how it is impacting both Tess and Grant in their current lives. This is proving to be a fast-paced page turner that I simply don’t want to put down. The Summer We Ran will fulfill the prompt for a book published in 2025 for The 52 Book Club 2025 challenge.
Reading for Me 
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